Manage your watch history

YouTube watch history makes it easy to find videos you recently watched and improves your video recommendations. You can control your watch history by deleting or pausing your history. You can delete individual items or delete your entire history. When you pause history, any videos that you watch while history is paused won't show in history and won’t be used to improve your recommendations. You can unpause your history to start recording history again.

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Note: You can access your watch history within the YouTube app via the instructions below. Your watch history is also saved in your Google Account if Videos you watch on YouTube is turned on. To view and control your saved activity, visit My Activity.

If you've been offline or lost your internet connection after pausing your watch history, we recommend you check your watch history when you get back online to make sure history appears as you expect. As always, you can delete any videos that appear in your history.

When you're signed in, changes you make to your account's watch history will appear on all devices you sign in to with this account. When you're signed out, you may still receive recommendations based on the watch history of your specific browser or app. To protect your privacy, this history isn't viewable but can still be cleared or paused. Those controls will apply to the browser or app.

Note: To view or delete what you've previously searched for on YouTube, check out your search history.

View, delete, or pause watch history (signed in)

Go to your watch history to find videos that you've viewed while signed in. This includes videos that you have watched while signed in to the YouTube app on mobile devices, as well as youtube.com. It also includes videos you've watched in a YouTube player on other websites while signed in to Google Chrome. Changes you make to your account watch history will appear on all devices you sign in to with this account.

To clear your watch history, go to Settings in the Guide, then select Clear watch history.

Clear or pause watch history (signed out)

Even when you're signed out, YouTube improves your recommendations based on the videos you watch on that device. You can clear or pause the history from your device -- see the instructions above for each device to learn how.

Note: To access your watch history on your computer when you’re signed out, please find the hourglass at the bottom of any YouTube page.

Search watch history on a computer

Search your watch history on a computer to find videos that you've watched before.